Premier League 1995 96 Standings

[Kathrine Selvage]

Georgiaraced to its second straight Southeastern Conference title in the nation's premier women's basketball league last season, compiling an impressive 11-1 record. Individually, La'Keshia Frett, Tracy Henderson and Kedra Holland-Corn all were named first-team All-SEC by league coaches, the first time three classmates from the same school have done so.

The Lady Bulldogs won their last nine SEC games by an average of 17.1 points. Included in that tally were victories over four Top 20 teams in the final two weeks of the regular season - No. 13 LSU, No. 12 Vanderbilt, No. 10 Florida and No. 20 Arkansas.

The Lady Bulldogs' celebrated Class of '97 certainly left its mark in the Georgia record books for years to come as each of the six seniors finished ranked among the school's Top 10 career leaders in one or more major statistical categories.

"This is the truth...I don't even know the numbers on our players' jerseys," Landers joked after the game. "If you think for one minute that I've kept a tally of how many wins I've got, you're mistaken. Somebody else has got to tell me those types of things."

Landers, the only full-time women's basketball coach in Georgia history, has compiled a 442-130 mark in 18 seasons in Athens. That averages out to 24.6 wins per year at Georgia, the third-best total among all Division I women's head coaches with as much tenure.

Georgia faced one of the nation's most difficult schedules during the 1997 season, including a school-record 16 opponents ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 at game time. The Lady Bulldogs compiled an impressive 11-5 record in those contests.

However, the Lady Bulldogs suffered setbacks to No. 24 Clemson, No. 5 Louisiana Tech, No. 5 Alabama, No. 1 Connecticut and No. 3 Stanford. The rankings listed are from AP Poll current on the day of the game.

By virtue of finishing No. 6 in the final Associated Press poll for the 1997 season, Georgia's Lady Bulldogs climbed from the No. 8 spot to a tie for the No. 6 position in the all-time AP women's basketball poll.

The poll is tabulated by compiling the final AP rankings for the 21 years that the news service has produced a women's basketball poll. Points are calculated by the same method utilized during the season - 25 pts. for 1st in a final poll, 24 for 2nd, etc.

That continues a steady ascent the Lady Bulldogs have enjoyed in the all-time poll over the past three seasons. With a No. 12 finish in the final 1995 poll, Georgia moved from No. 12 to No. 9 all-time, surpassing Southern Cal, Auburn and Stephen F. Austin. Two years ago, Georgia finished No. 5 in the final AP rankings, inching up from No. 9 to No. 8 past N.C. State. Last season, the Lady Dogs climbed over Penn State to tie Maryland for the No. 6 position.

After a 16-12 finish by Landers' first team at Georgia in 1979-80, the Lady Dogs won 20 or more games for 11 straight seasons before a 19-11 effort during 1991-92. The only other non 20-win team Landers has coached in Athens was the 1993-94 squad when, with last year's senior class serving as the nucleus, Georgia struggled to a 17-11 mark before winning 28 games each of the next two seasons.

When Tracy Henderson returned to action in February (from a kidney infection which hospitalized her for nearly a week in late January), the Lady Dogs showed why they were regarded as one of the nation's toughest teams to defend.

Against No. 13 LSU, Henderson equaled her season-high scoring output with 25 points. The trio totaled 63 points against the Lady Tigers, two shy of LSU's offensive output for the evening. Versus No. 12 Vanderbilt, Frett, Henderson and Holland-Corn outscored the Commodores 27-16 in the first half. For the game, the "Big Three" piled up 51 points to Vanderbilt's 45.

Kedra Holland-Corn and Pam Irwin were selected as the Southeastern Conference's Player of the Week on Dec. 9 and Feb. 3, respectively. Holland-Corn was also tabbed as the National Player of the Week on Dec. 11.

For an encore Holland-Corn scored a career-high 30 points in the win at No. 4 Tennessee. Included in that tally was a three-pointer with 11.9 seconds left in OT which not only sealed the win but also made her the most prolific three-point shooter in school history with 190 treys.

Irwin received her first career start against Georgia State on January 27 when Andy Landers benched his traditional five senior starters and responded with career-highs of 26 points and eight assists. Two days later, she exploded for 25 more points - 17 in the first half against No. 13 Florida. Irwin scored 11 against South Carolina to round out the week.

In the fourth Premier League campaign, in 1995-96, Manchester United just edged Newcastle for the title. That year, Man. United defended their championship crown and went on to claim a second double in their history by lifting the FA Cup.

After transferring key players Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andrei Kanchelskis, Alex Ferguson saw his fine crop of youngsters complete the job for United to become the first English club to repeat the double of league title and FA Cup. Ferguson signed no new players that season and relied mostly on Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, David Beckham and Neville brothers Gary and Phil.

The Red Devils amassed ten points less than their feat of two years before when they claimed their first double. Yet, this was mostly due to the fact that in 1996 the teams in the top flight were reduced to 20 and the total number of games played became 38 instead of 42.

Under Kevin Keegan, Newcastle looked on their way to become champions of England for the first time since 1927. At the start of the New Year in 1996, Newcastle held an amazing 12-point advantage. However, they fell by the wayside in the second phase of the campaign.

Since Newcastle started the campaign very positively, Kevin Keegan was named manager of the month for August and September. Other managers who won the accolade twice during the 1995/96 season, were Alex Ferguson, of Man.United, and Roy Evans, of Liverpool.

Every league leader playing at home to finish the season has won that game, most famously City in 2012 when Roberto Mancini's team scored twice in stoppage time to defeat Queens Park Rangers 3-2 and beat Manchester United to the title.

Alex Ferguson's Man United bounced back to win the title the following year, this time having no problems on a final-day fight with Newcastle's team of entertainers under Kevin Keegan. United had a two-point lead and won at Middlesbrough 3-0 while Newcastle, which led the standings by 12 points in February, drew with Tottenham 1-1.

Another title for Man United, which needed to come from behind to beat Tottenham 2-1 at home and hold off Arsenal by a point. Arsenal did its job by beating Aston Villa 1-0 and was given hope by Les Ferdinand's early goal for Tottenham. David Beckham equalized for United and Andy Cole's deft lob in the 47th minute ultimately proved decisive.

Chelsea left nothing to chance in its bid to stay ahead of Man United and end its rival's three-season reign as champion. An 8-0 thrashing of Wigan at Stamford Bridge, which included a hat trick by Didier Drogba, was Chelsea's biggest victory in its history and took the team past 100 goals for the season. United beat Stoke 4-0 but finished a point back in second place.

Man City left it to the last day for its second Premier League title, too, but this was less of a rollercoaster ride than two years earlier. A routine 2-0 win at home to West Ham was secured by goals from Samir Nasri and Vincent Kompany, and it was enough to hold off Liverpool, which finished two points behind following a 2-1 home win over Newcastle.

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